Of Passions and Spites
by limecottage
Summary: A collection of scenes in Severus Snape's and Aurora Sinistra's life at Hogwarts over the course of a year.
1. spring

_O tell me the truth about love - _W.H. Auden

_Will it come like a change in the weather?_

_Will its greeting be courteous or rough?_

_Will it alter my life altogether?_

A/N: Intellectual property of J.K. Rowling, etc etc.

* * *

Spring came to Hogwarts silently and suddenly. The snow on the grounds became darker and dirtier, little patches of wet grass starting to peek out of melting mounds of snow. In-between weeks of endless rain came the occasional afternoon of glorious sunshine, during which the tree trunks began scratching the backs of students who took their homework outside under the pretense that sun would aid their concentration.

The small garden near Hagrid's hut became increasingly greener, leaves coming into sight from under the ground and berries starting to form on the surrounding bushes. The unwanted attention from several birds forced the groundskeeper to fashion a scarecrow out of old rags and clothes and some twigs he found near the Forbidden Forest, topped with a nearly rotten pumpkin. It always ended up soaked through after the regular showers, acquiring a certain non-threatening, deflated look that wouldn't even fool a sparrow. Hagrid was still very proud of it, and improved it yearly with each new version he made.

A sunny day had one unfortunate drawback for some students: with it always came a cloudless night. At one in the morning, a reluctant and yawning group of students made their way up the stairs to the top of the Astronomy Tower where, chests still heaving from going up seemingly infinite flights of stairs, a number of telescopes and a bright-eyed, smiling, Astronomy professor eagerly awaited them, star charts already in hand.

* * *

Severus Snape found himself entering a classroom filled with half-asleep, bleary-eyed students, uncooperative and difficult to scare into submission for the third time in a month.

Barging into the office at the top of the Astronomy Tower, slightly out of breath, he was greeted with the sight of Professor Aurora Sinistra sitting at her desk, amidst a series of maps, charts and large hardbound books, looking at him over her glasses.

"Woman! – " he started.

"Aurora."

"Yes, well, your class is a nuisance to mine, and I wish for you to stop it at once!"

She raised an eyebrow, put her quill down, and crossing her hands, said, "Severus, you are an extremely intelligent man, surely you realize you're making no sense and that I can't understand what you're trying to saying to me."

He glanced a chair in front of her, and sat down on it, glaring at her, "Well, suggest me a different solution to this, then!"

"I'm not sure I understand what the problem is."

"Oh, stop playing coy, you know what this is about!"

"I swear it wasn't me who taught the Weasley twins how to charm a bar of soap to follow you around the school."

"You – what?" He shot her a menacing look, body edged forward and hands gripping the edge of her desk, "That is not the issue at hand here, woman!"

"Aurora."

"Yes, yes. My students keep falling asleep in my class, and I believe it is mine, as is yours, duty to make sure it doesn't happen again!"

"It's not my fault if they find your class boring."

Severus inhaled sharply and shut his eyes for a second. Why couldn't other people keep up with his thoughts?

"I am sorry, _Aurora_, I forget that Astronomy isn't challenging enough for you to keep your mental faculties sharp and able to comprehend simple matters," he said, while she stared angrily at him, little wrinkles forming on her forehead, "If you keep our students up late at night with foolish star-gazing, they don't get enough sleep, and sit like mindless drones all throughout my class the following morning."

She pushed her glasses to the top of her head, rubbing her face with her hands and sighing audibly.

"Severus," she started, "I've been through this with Albus. And we go through this every single year. It's Spring. It rains a lot. When it rains, the stars can't be seen properly. Therefore, I have to disrespect the schedules a bit and just call the kids in whenever the sky is clear enough."

He leant back in his chair, eyes narrowing as he looked at the woman before him. She was looking back at him, and he moved his gaze to the wall behind her. In the small, circular office, enchanted star charts that kept twinkling hung on every wall, making the stones that made it up barely visible. There were pillows, blankets, and books everywhere, the resemblance between the space and Professor Trelawney's classroom eerily similar.

Aurora's office did smell less of incense and actually featured an open window from time to time.

When he was trying to come up with a suitable response, Aurora cleared her throat, "If I didn't know you any better, I'd be under the impression that you find problems as an excuse to come up here and see me."

"I – what – don't be ridiculous. This is a serious issue, and just because Albus chooses to ignore it and not give it the attention it deserves, that doesn't mean it shouldn't be fixed."

She stood up, picking some books up and placing them on a bookshelf. After a moment of silence, she turned to him, arms crossed and said, "Honestly, the only way I feel we could solve this is if either of us stopped teaching our class. I don't think either of us will do that, and as such, we should just accept that until Summer comes around, our students will be miserable and being tardy to their morning classes."

He was about to reply when she smiled at him and asked, "Tea? I have this great Muggle one called Earl Grey that my sister sent me last week."

"You're changing the subject."

"There's no subject to be changed," she said as she summoned a teapot and two cups.

"Those teacups don't match."

"That won't change the tea's flavour, though."

"Your living space is a mess."

"Correction: my offices are lived in, not sterile, cold, and in awful, windowless dungeons," she replied, filling the teapot with hot water and dropping some leaves into it.

"Are you saying my quarters are not comfortable?"

"Severus," she said, stopping mid-action into pouring the tea into the cups, "Springtime has begun, it's extremely warm on most days, and you still need to light a fire to be able to even sleep there."

"It's a cold castle."

"I slept with the windows open last night, admit that your rooms are cold."

He mumbled something into the tea she placed in front of him.

She picked her tea up and moved to the window, looking at the sky and then down below at the sprawling grounds. The giant squid was poking a tentacle out of the water's surface, while several little black dots were running and walking on the grass, splashing mud on their robes and in their general vicinity.

"We should spend more time outside. It's been so nice out, lately, and all the lot of us do is grade papers cooped up inside."

He had moved next to her with his own (very floral) teacup, and she angled her body a bit to the left to make room for him, his voice ringing close to her ears as he spoke, "You know you can't do anything outside. The creatures immediately look at you as if you suddenly grew a second head. In their minds, you simply don't exist outside a classroom."

"That has never happened to me. Actually, I don't think that happens to anyone. Look," she pointed at a tree near the lake, "There's Professor Flitwick sitting against that tree, reading a book. And all the kids around him couldn't care less."

Severus said nothing, silently sipping his tea instead.

She continued, "They just think that about _you_ because you menacing and brooding wherever you go."

"I believe you are implying my students are afraid of me."

She looked at him out of the corner of her eye as she almost buried her nose in her teacup. After taking a big gulp, she said, "Well, they do tend to cry a lot after they are dismissed from Potions class."

He narrowed his eyes, "I'm helping them build character, it only does them good."

She gave out a small laugh, and kept staring out the window while they both finished drinking their teas. Aurora drank the last drops of hers and set the cup on the windowsill.

"You know," she said, "I need to plan a class."

He grunted something she couldn't understand, but it sounded very much like "Like looking at stars needs any planning."

"Yes, because, you see, I've scheduled a class with the second-year Ravenclaws tonight."

He glowered at her, setting his empty cup inside hers, "You're doing this on purpose. You _know _I have a class with the Ravenclaws tomorrow morning."

She avoided looking him in the eye, "I don't know what you're on about."

"I'm going to make your precious favourites pay for your inconsiderate actions. I hope you feel awful when you see one of them crying in the halls."

She gasped, holding a hand to her chest, "You can't take out your resentment towards me out on them!"

"I can, and I will."

She turned to him, looking at him, and standing on her tiptoes, she planted a small kiss on his nose, "You won't, though. They're adorable and so smart, not even you can possibly have the heart to do them any harm."

He grumbled out a "We'll see about that", and abruptly left the room, black robes billowing in his wake.

* * *

The following day, Filch found the second-year Ravenclaws already running around the halls 15 minutes before the bell rang for the morning break.


	2. summer

_past the road to your house_  
_(that you never called home)_  
_where they turned out the lights_  
_though they say you'll never know_  
_i remember running through the wet grass_  
_falling a step behind_  
_both of us never tiring_  
_desperately wanting_

_Desperately Wanting -_ Better Than Ezra

A/N: Everything belongs to J.K. Rowling, etc etc.

* * *

It was past midnight when a loud 'pop' woke Mr. Ramsay up. He sat upright in his bed almost immediately, groping around on his night-table for his glasses and slowly made his way out of his bed, towards the bedroom window. He was known amongst his neighbours for being exceedingly curious and spending most of his free time spying on other people's lives, confident that his vigilance would bring him infallible safety. Pulling the lace drapes aside, he peeked out into the street.

Staring at the old houses before him, he saw nothing extraordinary. The street was silent, as usual, most of the houses being unoccupied ever since the Cokeworth mill had closed down and its workers moved out to find new jobs. Several of the identical brick houses were now deserted, having only wild animals as tenants.

Mr. Ramsay was about to return to bed when he heard the distinct sound of footsteps and voices in the distance. Straining his hearing, he hid his face behind the drapes, leaving only a small space to peek out of. Two shadows came into sight, accompanied moments later by a man and a woman, both dressed in the same sort of long, dark tunic, each carrying a large wooden trunk. His eyes widened as the woman pulled out a long stick from somewhere inside what looked like a great coat completely unfit for the weather, and pointed it at her trunk, making it levitate slightly above the ground, trailing behind her as she walked. He immediately recognized the man, and rushed back to bed, shaking his wife awake.

"Wake up, Nora, wake up!" he whispered urgently, "He's here again, and he's brought a woman with him this time! And I'm telling you, she just made her luggage fly!"

His wife grumbled and pulled the covers over her head, forcing him to pull her out of bed and drag her to the window.

They were greeted with an empty street.

She glared at him, "This is why I don't like it when you go down to the pub after dinner!"

Mr. Ramsay was left frantically staring at every nook outside his window looking for the mysterious man he found so intriguing, wondering if he really had had one pint too many.

* * *

Severus hissed at her, and with a flick of his wand made her trunk fall back down on the road with a light thump.

"Don't you think that if a Muggle saw us right now, he would find a flying trunk slightly suspicious?"

She rolled her eyes before picking up the trunk before her, "I wouldn't have needed to levitate it if you had been chivalrous enough to carry it for me."

He looked at her, switching his own trunk from his left to his right hand, "I am no gentleman and you are no helpless lady in need of rescue."

She just grumbled in response.

"Regardless," he continued, "These were charmed, an owl feather would weigh more than them."

"Still uncomfortable," she muttered as they reached the end of the street, "And as if anyone would see us at this time of night, in the middle of this deserted street."

"We aren't experts in Muggle habits, Aurora, who knows what they do for amusement during the night."

Aurora shot a lewd smile in his direction, which went by completely unnoticed.

Just a few steps later, they arrived at the front door of one of the identical dirty brick houses on Spinner's End. Severus set his trunk down near Aurora as she rubbed her hands to get rid of the red stress marks, and advanced towards the door. Searching the inside of his robes, he produced a large brass with which he proceeded to unlock the door.

Trailing after him, Aurora walked through the doorway, trunks floating behind her. She looked around her as she locked the door softly. He had already lit some candles, and made it possible to see that the place looked the same as ever. Walls lined with books, which upon closer inspection would reveal frayed pages, scribbled margins and cracked spines; a rickety old sofa and a big armchair that she loved and spent most of her time in; and plenty of dust on every available surface.

She walked upstairs, each step creaking under her weight. Reaching the bedroom, she grimaced at the thick layer of dust laying on the bare mattress. Groaning audibly, she cast a Scouring charm, and left the room as the dust made itself fly through the now open window.

Upon descending, she found Severus in the kitchen, magically cleaning some pots and pans. She moved next to him, reaching up to a cupboard to fetch some mugs. One of them had a small crack near the rim. Noticing this, he filled a kettle with water and lit a fire on the stove to boil it.

She sat down at the table, poking her tongue out at the sight of a spider scuttling across its surface, "I always hate the look of this house whenever we get here."

Severus murmured something under his breath as she moved the kettle to the table and sat down next to her. He watched as she tried to pin her unruly mess of a hair on the top of her head, a few locks escaping and resting near her temples.

"You make that observation each year we come here."

"You know it wouldn't feel right if I didn't whine. Besides, you're the one who keeps inviting me back, you must be aware that I love complaining," she paused, pouring tea for both of them, dropping some conjured ice cubes in their mugs, "Much like you do."

He looked at her, a little smirk forming on the corner of his lips. They drank their tea quietly, until Aurora spoke, "Oh, by the way, that family of Doxies we can't get rid of must be hiding behind the living room curtains again. I refuse to handle that."

Rising from his seat, he took the empty cups and placed them in the sink. She stood up to help him, but he took the empty kettle before she could, placing it back in the cupboard.

Making her way to the living room, she heard him speak from the kitchen, "I'll deal with them tomorrow, but you'll have to stop by Diagon-Alley to get some Doxycide."

He blew out the candles in the kitchen and joined her in the living room, watching as she started to clean the sofa. Touching her wrist lightly, he moved close to her and spoke in a low, sort of reverential, hushed tone, "That can wait until tomorrow, woman."

She turned to him, a smile already on her face, "Aurora, if you please," she said as she followed him upstairs.

* * *

The next morning, she woke up to a series of loud noises coming from somewhere in the house, and rolling over in bed, she found its left side empty. She sighed, thinking that man probably hadn't slept since he was in the cradle.

After getting dressed and attempting to brush her hair, she came downstairs to find several books spread out on the floor and many more flying around, opening and closing themselves with a loud smack near the open window to let the dust out.

Being careful to avoid getting hit in the head by one of them, she moved into the kitchen and made herself some toast. As she looked out of the tiny window over the sink, she noticed some smoke flying up from the chimney on the small wooden shack in the backyard.

Severus had built it as a place to brew potions in after she had casually mentioned in conversation that brewing in the kitchen was disgusting and a health hazard, and that she wouldn't cook any meals in there if he kept it up. The day after, there was a dingy little thing amid the dried up grass, in which Severus spent too much of his free time.

She nibbled on her toast for a bit before she unlocked the door next to the stove, a plate of freshly buttered toast in her hand and headed outside. Basking in the feeling of the sun touching her pale skin, she knocked on the wooden door.

"Come in," he said, his voice barely audible.

Pushing the creaking door open, she looked inside the small space. There were shelves in every wall, some vials filled with liquids and other things she deliberately chose to ignore on them. Severus stood over a copper cauldron, a blue fire lit underneath, a light pink smoke hanging in the air. She stood next to him for a bit.

"I brought you toast," she set the plate on the table, far away from the cauldron.

He nodded in acknowledgment and kept stirring the purple mixture with his wand. She kept eating her toast quietly, backing away from the table a bit. His brow was furrowed with concentration, and he kept muttering under his breath. She watched as he clean his wand, filled a series of little vials with the liquid and cleaned his hands before grabbing the plate of toast.

Aurora held the door open for him as they both left the shack and sat on the old garden bench underneath the shade of the porch. He took a bite of a piece of toast, and she helped herself to another one as well.

"What was that you were brewing?"

He brushed a breadcrumb away from her cheek before answering, "A healing potion for Billywig poison. Order from St. Mungo's."

She looked at him between narrowed eyes, "You're supposed to be on Holiday. Resting. Not working."

He placed a bit of crust back on the plate and took another piece of toast, "I like brewing potions. It's not work."

She rolled her eyes, picking the bit of crust back up and eating it before saying, "You're strange. Anyway, I'm going to Diagon-Alley today to pick up the Doxycide, do you need anything?"

"Don't you want me to come along?"

She smiled at him, "Thanks, but you always ask the shopkeepers difficult questions and end up terrifying them when they can't answer you," she patted his knee, "Besides, you spend too much time around people during the year, just stay here and do your thing."

Getting up, she shook the crumbles off of her robes, and bending down slightly, she kissed Severus on the cheek. He looked up at her as she smiled, and watched her go back into the house, hearing the familiar sound of the flames igniting as she threw some Floo powder into them.

A few hours later Aurora stumbled out of the fireplace, soot all over her hair and robes, a couple of bags dangling from her arms. Steadying herself, she brushed the soot off of her with her hand and set the bags down on the sofa. She began trying to cram some new books in the little space available on her side of the bookshelves, giving up after the third book and just putting the rest of them on a pile next to the sofa.

She took the rest of the bags into the kitchen, and started putting groceries away. She had taken at least double the amount of time she actually needed at Diagon-Alley, because the famous Gilderoy Lockhart had been doing a signing at Flourish and Blotts, and the street in its entirety was blocked with fans holding copies of his books to be signed. Aurora could not understand what made people act the way they did in the presence of that man, always with his perfect golden locks and shining, white, dazzling smile, and impeccable manners and...

Maybe she understood a little bit.

Smiling at her own thoughts, she moved on to the backyard shed to hand Severus the Doxycide and some ingredients he hadn't asked for, but that she thought he might need anyway. She found it empty, and after placing the items on the table she wondered where he might have gone to.

When they first met, he had the awful habit of taking off and not saying a word to her, disappearing for hours and leaving her to fret over his absence. After a few rows and some tears on her end (although she'll always deny it), he started scribbling little hasty notes with where he was going and leaving them where she could find them. She called it a very thoughtful and caring attitude, he called it a preventive measure to shield his eardrums from a banshee-like wailing.

She looked in the kitchen and checked the living room, but didn't find anything. Already starting to feel just a little bit nervous, she went upstairs, and entered their bedroom, being immediately faced with a sleeping form on the bed.

The shades were still up and he was completely dressed and over the covers; she had seen this scene a few times before. The "I'm-not-going-to-sleep-just-rest" act was extremely rare, but characteristic of a stubborn man who would never admit he wasn't made of stone or steel. Feeling her breathing even slightly, she gingerly walked across the room to lower the shades. She heard him stir in his sleep and was sitting down on the edge of the bed as he suddenly woke up and made a move to get up immediately.

"Oh, no you won't, lay back down," she said, placing a hand on his hand and gently pushing him back down onto the bed.

"But the doxies, I..." he muttered, voice still husky from sleep.

"Yes, yes, that can all wait until later. Honestly, you're acting as if it's the first time I've caught you sleeping during the day. But don't worry, I won't tell anyone you're actually human, your students will still be scared whenever you pass by them."

He rubbed his eyes and looked at her, "Very amusing, Aurora."

She smiled and scooted closer to him, belly down, chin resting on his chest as she looked up at him over the rims of her glasses, "Go back to sleep, you must be exhausted."

"I wasn't sleeping when you came in," he muttered, his eyes already closed.

"Sure you weren't. I didn't see it, no, I saw nothing of the sort," she answered, taking her glasses off and resting her head on his chest.

"I really wasn't. I can't sleep in an empty bed anymore," Severus mumbled as he put an arm around Aurora's shoulder, pulling her closer next to him and burying his nose on the top of her head.


End file.
